District Attorney In Charge Of Colorado Shooting Suspect Case Known For Seeking The Death Penalty

In an in-depth profile of Arapahoe County District
Attorney Carol Chambers, published Sunday, The Atlantic highlights a prosecutor so in
favor of the death penalty that she once billed the state for
charges her county racked up during capital prosecutions.

Chambers is in charge of prosecuting the case against James
Holmes, the 24-year-old accused of opening fire early Friday
morning on a theater full of mostly young people attending the
midnight premiere of the new Batman movie.

However, she won't still be in office by the time the case is
concluded.

Chambers has sought more death-penalty cases than any other
current DA in Colorado and at the time she billed the state for
her death-penalty cases, she was pursuing six of the seven active
capital cases in the state, according to The Atlantic.

"She appears to be the ideal prosecutor to pursue a capital cases
[sic] for this horrific crime," Colorado journalist Alan
Prendergast told The Atlantic. "She's known for being unorthodox
and not particularly concerned about what the electorate thinks
of her decisions. But it's important to remember that while she's
been successful in some high-profile death penalty cases, she's
lost others because of questionable conduct by her office."

Prendergast added that Chambers has also wielded the death
penalty as a "club" to obtain plea bargains, though it's still
unclear whether such a deal would be possible in the Holmes case,
The Atlantic reported.